and then the dog was driving!

Somewhere outside of Topeka, things got a little bizarre!  Needless to say, Bo made his first trip up to the front of the car and thought he was MUCH smaller than he was.  This picture was after about 5 minutes when he figured out he was in the way and needed to go back to the safety of his own seat!

Let me start back at the beginning.  We left Mt Vernon around 7am.  Nothing truly eventful took place.  It rained most of the way until we got into Kansas and then thankfully, the sun opened up.  I'm pretty sure we're done with the rain from here on out!

I have learned that real estate law isn't as boring as one might think!  Who knew all the twists and turns of a soap opera were involved in some transactions?  Fascinating!

We again, didn't take many pictures, but there really wasn't much to see.  We did snap a few of the St. Louis Arc

It was pretty impressive to see!

Other than that, we made it into Salina, KS at 2pm (whatever time zone we're in now).  We took ourselves into town and ate at a lovely steak restaurant and filled ourselves full so we could enjoy a nice sleep!

I will say I've been very impressed with the Holiday Inn's we've been staying at.  I usually stay at Marriott, but I now feel I have 2 options.  The staff has been great, the rooms have been great and they treat the dogs wonderfully!  We have been asked several times while walking through the lobbies if there is a dog show going on in the area.  Needless to say, we obviously have 2 good looking dogs!  If only they'd behave as well!!!  :)  See you in Denver!

Driving and Jami and Rain, OH MY!

There should be pictures, but there aren't.  I did manage to take a picture of the Tennessee sign but then almost ran into a concrete barrier, so the camera was taken away from me.  Probably a good thing :)  Word to the wise, don't take pictures and drive boys and girls!

Today's drive was our longest.  We left around 9am and got into Mt. Vernon around 8:00pm EST.  The trip, for the most part, was uneventful.  We drove, there were trees, a lot of trucks, oh, and us.

We did get a chance to meet up with Ms Jami outside of Ft. Campbell for lunch at the Cracker Barrel.  It's always good to catch up and see her and hear all the fun and exciting things this Martha Stewart of Texas is doing.  She bakes, she sews, she raises 3 kids while living in a 5th wheel trailer.  Hey, I'm always impressed!

We hit rain a little bit outside of Ft. Campbell.  I was hoping we could make it into Illinois before it started, but no such luck.  Traffic was still flowing pretty well until about 5 miles before our exit for the hotel.  Unbeknownst to us, there was road work that took the road from 2 lanes to 1, right before our exit.  We figured out that we could make it to our exit about 3 miles out and proceeded to get into the far right hand lane.  Then, the one stupid truck driver decided to be cute and block the far right hand lane so no one could scoot around.  Now, I've always wanted to do this before  because it causes congestion right before lanes merge, however, when there is an EXIT coming up, why do this?  So basically, what should have taken me a minute to get to, took me 10 minutes because Mr. Trucker guy would only move forward when the right lane started forward.  Needless to say, my blood pressure rose, my horn honked and the thought did cross my mind to get out of my car and beat on his truck.  I refrained.  Aren't y'all proud :)

So, after close to 11 hours in the car, Suzannah knows my entire intestinal problems, my bowel movements and Jami's whole history on Fat March.  (I did squeeze in about 2 seconds of Jami's side just to be fair)  I am sure she is SO looking forward to the next 3 legs of this trip and what pops out of my mouth!

I will say the stress of the first day did get to me and Tom.  I think with all the driving and the adrenaline and the "Oh my god are we there yet!", by the time we finally DID make it here, we just lost it.  Tempers were high,  but after a hot shower, a glass of wine and some Grey's Anatomy, all is well.  Suzannah took a different hotel room though, just in case things started to fly before the hot shower calmed everyone down :)  I have faith tomorrow will be better.  All of our legs are much shorter than today and we know how long we can go and where we need to stop!

So, I'm going to sign off for now.  Tomorrow we go to Salina, KS.  We're going to try to leave a little earlier so we have longer daylight to drive in!  We'll  keep everyone posted!

Moving Day!

Don't you all wish there were pictures?  Heck, I wish there were pictures of certain things.  Like, how do you think 3 men got a tractor onto the truck?  They won't tell me.  My guess is it wasn't safe!  Alas, no pictures!

Our day started at 7:30 with a trip to drop the puppies off at the vet to get a good bath and cut.  We then made it over to Denny's to grab some breakfast.  Afterwards, it was off to get the truck!  By 9:15am the truck was in the driveway!  (of course that took about 10 attempts but thankfully the mailbox survived it's close encounters!)

All in all, nothing exciting happened today.  Tom and I were both sad to leave the house this evening, but we're leaving it in good hands and looking forward to new adventures. 

The downside to the move was that we had to leave a few things behind.  For the longest time I was concerned that the truck we had (26' truck) was going to be way to big.  We stuffed every corner and crevice and STILL had to leave our large grill and some odds and ends.  Hopefully the new tenant will be able to either use them, or get rid of them creatively!

We're now nice and toastie at the Plemmon's household.  We're looking forward to a good nights sleep (after some Aleve) before heading out early tomorrow morning!  We are slated to make it to Mt. Vernon, IL for our first official stop.  It's our longest leg of the trip but hopefully the most entertaining.  We're going to meet up with my friend Jami outside of Clarksville, TN for lunch!  Anyone else on our way to Grand Junction?!

I promise, once the trip starts, things should get entertaining.  I'm just to tired at 9:30pm to entertain!  I'm very thankful for the Plemmons for keeping us for the night and feeding us some wonderful chili.  I'm stealing Suzannah tomorrow to join us for our trek.  We'll talk about her horrible flight pattern she has to take home on Sunday.  Ahhh, good times!